The Slight Edge : Book Review
“The Slight Edge” : Book Review
So I decided to share some tips I’d learned from a book called “The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson.
Jeff has been a mentor of mine for about a decade now, and his book has had a huge impact on my personal and professional life. This book is less of a “HOW-TO” book and more of a “Philosophy” book that sets the framework for how you view and approach life.
From a technical standpoint, I’m still learning how to Film and Edit my own content. However, I’m on a mission to complete 90 Days of consecutive content, and will be separating and evaluating every 7 days to see what I can do better.
Jeff Olson also taught me to 1. Set a Plan 2. DO (Take Action) 3. Review Progress 4. Repeat
- Plan: Create and Publish Daily Content - Check
- Do: Publish Daily Content (Film/Edit) - Check
- Review:
Get a wind muff to muffle wind noise on mic
Move camera further away from face
Record indoors or on less windy days outdoors. :)
Make shorter videos
Have Fun :)
Now, Onto the content from the Book Review video
The Slight Edge talks about the power of compounding, and how we can apply that ideology to every area of our lives.
Philosophy #1: “Do the Thing, and you Shall Have the Power”-Ralph Waldo Emmerson
This is to say that if you want to harness the energy of “Success” in a thing, you must first DO that thing, even if you’re doing it poorly. This is antithetical to some of the philosophies that we were raised with. I.e. “Get good, and mistake free, then you will have great success.”
For D-Tube/Steemit, I think that means that we focus on “Doing” the thing, realizing that everything we will need to learn will come to us from execution.
Philosophy #2: How/How Often MATTERS
How: “Do The Thing” with a positive attitude. A mentor of mine used to say, “It’s not the “How To’s”, It’s how you DO the “How To’s” that matters.” Now that’s a mouthful, but if you follow closely. When 2 people approach the same task, that attitude with which they approach it has deterministic power. I don’t mean, sunshine and rainbows...I mean..Are you tenacious? Do you stick with it? Do you move from failure to failure, gathering what you can learn and turning it into progress. THAT, my friends is “Attitude”.
How Often: “The child who gives up after falling once, will never walk”-Me :) lol.
Seriously though. We often say we “tried” something and it didn’t work. But when you look at the track record, you see that there were very few attempts at a task, and often little to no consistency. It’s my belief that if you consistently apply yourself to a task for “x” amount of time, you will gain knowledge, competency, and expertise in the area that will lead to success. For Steemians and D-Tubers, If you’re serious about making content, I challenge you to commit to 30-60-90 Days of consistently creating content without seeing significant results in your competence, knowledge, community following/subscribers/followers and your steem deposits.
Philosophy 3: Double Your Rate of Failure
I think this one is self-explanatory, but I’ll touch on it quickly.
A lot of us have been trained to count our successes in life so much, that we fear mistakes/failure. In business, trading/investing, growth in almost any area, failure is not only an option, it is the way we gain the necessary insight to grow.
Look at WHATEVER you are looking to improve in, and find ways to increase your rate of failure. Have you wanted to start an e-commerce business? START...start small if you have to, then review and improve. Waiting to invest in cryptocurrency? Determine an acceptable amount to “lose” and use it as tuition to learn about investment/trading opportunities.
Hesitating to get started in Steem/D-Tube? Don’t...Write 10 bad articles and make 10 bad videos. (That’s what I’m doing...lol)
Philosophy 4: The cost of waiting
DON’T WAIT!!! Waiting is NOT a neutral position. “Waiting” is “Unrealized Gains”. Especially when you’re in a rapidly growing space where your energy output can net a 10-1000x return.
Take imperfect Action, because EVERYTHING WORKS, but “NOTHING” doesn’t.
Time will either expose you or promote you. Who you become or where you are in the next 3 years (or even 3 months) in this case will reveal what you did or did NOT do Today.
Philosophy 5: Success is Simple, but not Easy
The rules of succeeding in a venture are not terribly complex. If you want to lose weight, increase your savings, pay off debt or invest, the things to do aren’t incredibly complex. If you want to succeed on DTube/Steemit, the rules are also not incredibly complex. It’s SIMPLE, but not easy. Create content...DAILY. Get Better...DAILY. Do it again...DAILY. But it’s a lot easier to over analyze and do nothing.
I’ll stop here, but I appreciate anyone who takes the time to read, view, or comment. I’d love to do this challenge with some of the community. If you’re down, comment below and let’s support each other on this journey.
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